Myspace may be poised for a comeback. Chris and Tim Vanderhook, the brothers who purchased the platform from News Corp via their company Specific Media (now part of Viant Technology), have confirmed that they’re actively planning to relaunch the iconic social network.
Speaking in Tommy Avallone’s new documentary about the site’s history, Chris stated, “We still own Myspace. We are stewards of the Myspace brand at this point, and we are going to relaunch Myspace,” noting that “we’re just waiting for the right time to do it. And if that one doesn’t work, we’ll do it again.”
Playing the long game
The 2011 acquisition began with an unusual gambit where the brothers issued a fake press release announcing that Justin Timberlake had joined their acquisition team before they had even spoken to him. Their ploy worked, however, as it got them a meeting in New York and Timberlake eventually came on as an investor.
Nevertheless, the revival didn’t take. By the time the duo had control over the platform, Myspace had already cycled through several CEOs and leadership teams. With Facebook having firmly established its dominance, advertisers had moved on, and the site’s cultural pull was gone.
While there’s no timeline for the new attempt and no detail on what the site would look like, Chris DeWolfe, one of the original co-founders, suggests that there’s room for something that isn’t algorithm-driven.
“I do think the algorithms have a lot to do with the addictive nature of social media,” DeWolfe told People. “Everything’s programmed to you and what you’re going to like, with the complete and total notion of increasing the amount of minutes that you’re going to spend on a particular social media site,” he added.
Whether any of this means a significant revival or expansion of features like the beloved, customizable “Top 8,” which still exists in limited form on the current site, remains to be seen.
Sources: TechCrunch, Deadline, People, Business Wire (Web Archive), RUSSH